A Societal Shift -Take ten

It has been three months and the update has been re-created maybe 10 times, each time with a stalled release. One might almost think we were attempting to write it by committee. We have been excited by the inspiration of those coming through the house, frustrated with lack of Global progress on climate change, overwhelmed with huge swarms of students, and tired by the plague known as “busy mind syndrome” (BMS) resulting in lack of sleep. Ann had a particularly difficult month with BMS coupled with PMS. There is no doubt that this update could be easily classified as having “multiple personality disorder”. With this said we pre-warn you that you may be amused and abused by this update.

We are trying to condense the highlights of our thoughts over the past three months, and in doing so have sadly left out some wonderful stories, humorous episodes, and acidic rants that will remain in our minds haunting us until they find an outlet. So to begin lets talk about some bad language.

Bad Language
We firmly believe that the language we use paints the path on the roadmap we follow into the future. Here are a couple examples where we have tried to alter language diverting from a dangerous path to a sustainable path. I guess the first example of a bad use of words would be “road map”… unless of course we see our future filled with roads, Hmmm how about using “trails and transit map”.

Participatory Land Planning – We are presently trying to influence our community in their vision by replacing the term “Land Use” with “Land Participation”. The word use, implies consume whereas the word participate implies to co-operate with others (human and non-human). All our cities and municipalities write their official community plans supplanted around land use patterns, or should we clearly say land consumption patterns. This implies we are separate entities from the land, therefore not part of the ecosystem. Instead we think that all municipalities need to begin to talk about “Land Participation” or “Participatory Land Planning”. We are participants with the land and the living systems and need to work co-operatively and play by the rules of the ecosystem.

Resource Recovery – All our building codes are written to define ways to deal with waste, underpinning policies that focus on waste disposal systems and sanitary sewerage. Have you ever wondered why there is no term in the code called resource recovery? If there is no waste in nature then why do we create a language to allow such? I guess waste is another “stupid human concept” (SHC). We suggest “resource recovery” replace “waste disposal” as an alternative.

For that matter while on the topic of SHCs, turning back to sanitary sewers… are they sanitary? And for whom… the fish, the rats, the workers that fix/clean them? Are they sanitary when they get plugged up? Are they sanitary when rains fall and create floods? Are they sanitary when the outflows reach the beaches, become absorbed by the shellfish? Does a Sanitary Sewer dismiss the existence of a sanitary compost, or sanitary greywater re-use? It is hard to convince the authorities of an alternative when they only know one concept and view it as “sanitary”. Sanitary…my Ass.

“Green” Development – Won’t even go there.

Changing language is part of a societal shift, but committees don’t make this happen quickly. Here’s an example…give a small committee a single question such as… “How do you skin a cat?”

Is there a right way and a wrong way to skin a cat? Should you start from the tail and work forward, or start from the head? How would a committee decide… and what if there was a cat lover on the committee… and a dog, a bird… a butcher and a taxidermist?

Obviously something seemingly simple becomes infinitely more complex with endless problems with many equally valid points of view.

The complexity of the endless problems we face as small local communities and as a species seems to be as intricate and interwoven as the planetary ecosystem that is collapsing. The differences in opinions and varied visions to skin the same cat, either by starting from the tail or the head result in our committees continuing to dissect the issues and compartmentalize the problems loosing track of the underlying problem as a whole. It seems we continually try to solve these endlessly divergent problems and instead of arriving at converging solutions, we create increasing complexity. Our approach just doesn’t seem to be working.

Emily’s Answer to this question over dinner one night…she’s 9.
We posed the question to the kids at the dinner table. In a flash Emily had an answer that Ann and I were stunned with. Here it is…”The group all shows respect for the cat and the cat lover, the taxidermist skins the cat and gets the fur, the butcher gets the meat, the dog gets the tail, and the bird gets to watch.” Simple.

Now, how do Adults deal with divergent problems?
We are part of a public email list that focuses on sustainable energy. (Surprised?). We recently had two people respond to our comment that we need to use less energy before we build more power infrastructure in BC. Here is the more polite of the two public responses:

Saintly ideas of voluntary simplicity, no travel and minimal commuting is not a reality for most people, and likely will not be. If you have already resigned the profane, mainstream social narrative to a destruction scenario, and aren’t responsible for anyone else’s well-being other than your own, than its easy to dismiss the construction of major new renewable energy as just “feeding the consumer lifestyle, the green edition”. But simple dreams of co-operative urban farms, solar panels, candlelight and peace festivals isn’t going to cover the scope of it, as lovely as that sounds.

Yes, I am sure all who know us are aware that these email comments do not even slightly reflect what we are doing or trying to accomplish. We actually have never participated in a candlelight or peace festival…though these both would be admirable pursuits…better than going shopping at the mall with over extended credit cards to fill empty voids.

Here are some saintly words of wisdom from Paul Hawken.

Paul Hawken – part of his Commencment Speech to the graduating class of 2009 of the University of Portland:

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

This provides a nice segway to …. Hmmm how about one of our profane, mainstream social narrative experiences. Yes what a great idea.

Profane or Profanity… TV
We had visitors here this past month on a “visit” who besides talking about solar heated swimming pools and million dollar homes with self opening windows and ground source heat pumps, asked, “Where is your TV?” Ann said “We don’t have one”. The instantaneous response of the visitor was “What do the kids do?” The short answer should have been “They THINK damn it”, instead Ann just stood there stunned at the question.

Turn the clock back 12 years.
Gord turned his TV off 12 years ago, a time when work started at 5 am and ended at 6pm, doing a job where there wasn’t 30 seconds during that day wherein he had his own time in his own head for himself. Coming home landed him in front of the TV to try to unwind himself. Funny enough the TV also didn’t offer any time for him, instead removing any such needed time completely from existence. With the bold step of turning off the tube, all of a sudden there was time to read, create a garden, and draw house plans… there was time to get off the brainwashing train and dream.

Move the clock forward to today.
What do the kids do without a TV? They read books, use their imagination to make up games, (inside and out), they talk more (maybe Emily should be placed in front of the TV), ask questions, want to spend time with you, they draw pictures, cut out cardboard and make sustainable towns, they play in their little garden plot, look at snakes, observe the baby birds’ goofy flight patterns, learn what wild plants they can eat, report on the compost temperature and the list goes on. They have long since lost the desire for things they don’t see in the advertisements… those things that tell you what you are “supposed” to have or be… or those things you “deserve” to have.

Our kids befriend other kids not exposed to TV, quickly emerging into imaginative game creation and not games revolving around TV characters. They seem eager to accept novel new games to play… they are rarely bored… original imagination and creativity dominate because they are used to doing something with what they have… their brains.

BUT… The dark side has power!
This said the TV has this unspeakable power. We went into the credit union to open an Eco-Sense account and sat in the lobby; 15 feet away were three TV screens and no sound. What were the kids and Gord doing? Staring blankly. A month later when Gord and Emily sat in the walk-in clinic there was another TV screen showing something… with no sound… and what were Gord and Emily doing? Watching with glazed eyes…

Gord turned to Emily after a couple of minutes and said “Don’t you find it strange that we are looking at the TV and not talking, not knowing what is happening on the TV, and we are just glued to it?” At that moment we consciously made the effort to not look. That is when Emily started talking again. Gord quickly ran for the remote!

The Real Problem
The problem is not Peak Oil, climate change, food sovereignty, energy security, GHG’s, transportation, social justice, carbon sequestration, watershed management, sustainable energy, run of river hydro, adaptation, affordable housing, water, energy and resource conservation, habitat loss, or green building. The REAL problem is how we live as human beings, on a regional/community level and a global level. The underlying ramifications of how we live cannot be fixed by increasing complexity within the same framework. If we do not address the causative factor we will only continue to create more issues to try and remediate. We need a societal shift wherein we are not always expending our energies trying to fix the consequences of our actions. Quite bluntly IF IT HURTS, STOP DOING IT.

The message of sustainability has become so complex that it is increasingly difficult to unite and engage the public.

The message needs to be simplified, personalized, and tangible results achieved in a short period of time. We need a complete overhaul of our taxation system from municipal right up to federal. Sustainability in ALL forms needs to be rewarded. Tax the bad, and reward the good. A simplified tax system is essential. Use the best of Capitalism and Socialism to create Sustianableism which fosters sustainable green economies and focuses on strengthening local communities.

To accomplish the seemingly impossible we need leaders with vision to inspire and lead the people with a SIMPLE clear and achievable vision with goals that personalizes the message so that citizens can unite in a common vision. We need to stop adding layers of complexity to an already complex set of rules, but throw the rules out and start anew. Anyone ever heard of “The Law of Diminishing Returns”?

The past three months – a point form update
- Gave a Floors and Counters Course – everyone left with a short booklet and their own countertop.
- Gave a solar PV introduction course
- made and delivered our first batch of tractor-cob into Victoria for a cob bench
- had workshops to build the cold storage with living roof – now completed and drying and getting ready to plaster (this workshop is full)
- LOTS of tours, June was our busiest month ever. (next public tour is Sunday August 2 – call or email to book a spot)
- second visit from Harrowsmith – article due next spring
- involvement with Highlands community groups (various task forces and the Mary Lake Project)
- just started the Cob bathroom at Eagles Lake complete with composting toilet… a month of our volunteer labour.

So there it is…what a blur.

And finally a last minute submission demonstrating the absurd. We have a client on the Sunshine Coast trying to build two small homes for herself and her daughter…small, recycled and sustainable! One home is completely recycled/reassembled, the other a 600 sqr ft load bearing cob home. The major hurdle here is the Home Protection Office – the very same one that has gone bankrupt and asking the BC Government for money. They have told these people that they are not allowed to build these two tiny dwellings for a family to live on the same land, and that they, two single women, have to apply to be builders to build these homes, otherwise they have to build one and then once final occupancy is gained wait 18 months to start the other. It would however be possible, legal, and even much simpler for the mother and daughter to build a monster luxury unsustainable home. And it gets worse…They are told to register as builders, but then they couldn’t actually register as builders because it is not yet possible for a builder to build cob homes…only owner/builders can build a cob home. Huh? Not only is the HPO poorly managed, their policies are anti-family and as we have learned… anti-sustainable. The HPO once showed up here at Eco-Sense (without notice) after reading about our home in a Vancouver newspaper…our home was reported as a duplex where parents lived along side their daughter and family. Can you imagine that…three generations living together! Shame on them! If they are looking for a productive place to improve and ensure the quality of homes, why don’t they focus on all those toxic, plastic wrapped rotting examples of modern energy intensive homes we call “built to code”.

Rant, rant, rant,

Sincerely,
Gord and Ann